"Unable to locate file" error

My team uses a shared library that we each import as zipped into Camtasia 9 on each of our personal computers. If one person drags in an image, for example, from this library and then shares the project over a network drive to someone else, then the other person will get an "Unable to locate file" error for that image. Is there a way around this besides zipping the whole project to share, or placing the image file on the network drive with the project? If we are all using the same library, should Camtasia 9 be able to find the file?

There's no obvious reason why that shouldn't work; it's the same thing I do when I'm replicating my library from my desktop to my notebook. I just did a test and it still works in the most current version.

The only thing I can suggest is that maybe the library has not been shared correctly. You haven't indicated how you are sharing this library. (Not the full process, anyway.) I'm not sure that just copying the directories in the Program Data folder works. (In fact I suspect it doesn't.) I'm not saying that you're doing that - you did say that you were using zips, but it's not clear whether you're creating those from the library or the Program Data folder - but if so that may be an issue. You would need to select the assets that you want to share, right click and select "Export Selected Assets" to create a Camtasia-specific zip. (You can export the whole library, but I don't recommend it because you'll get duplicated folders when you reimport. I export only the folders that I have created, usually.)

On the target machine I delete my custom folders, then just double click on the Zip file to reimport them. This ensures that Camtasia knows where everything is.

Yes, it's fiddly. However if you don't update the library very often it's passably acceptable. I have my desktop machine designated as the "library master" and ONLY make changes to the library there to avoid potentially unintentionally overwriting changes on the other machine; that may also be an issue.

I have been investigating and discovered that what you suggested does work. There seems to be an issue with which version of our library is being used, even if the media is in both versions. Do you think it will still work if a project created now is opened many months down the track after we have updated our library, if the media is in both versions of our library?

Based on what you've written I suspect that you need to do what I do and designate one computer as the master library. The problem (I suspect) is this; the "same" asset is being added in more than one library. The problem is that each library will assign it a different ID code.

For example, I have a callout that I added to my library. It appears in the folder C:\ProgramData\TechSmith\Camtasia Studio\Library 3.0\Callout_2018-01-27_124323 which is of course based on the date and time that I added it. The problem is that if I added exactly the same callout into the library of both machines, they would end up in folders with different names, because they would be added at different times.

To you, the two libraries would look the same. To Camtasia they won't, because the assets will have different ID codes and live in different folders.

If on the other hand you are always exporting the library from one PC and reimporting it into all of the other PCs, the assets will always be in the same folders and have the same names. Camtasia will be able to find the assets without problem. As long as the asset remains in the master library, it should be available no matter how long after the event it's added.

And if you have, say, three people alternating between working on a project over the course of five days, zipping it up and sending it to each other after each and every session is just soooooo convenient!

Even when it's only one person working in two locations (me, for instance), that's a - how can I put it diplomatically - "excessively painful solution". I record on my desktop. Ah, time to go to work, I'll edit on the train. No, wait, gotta zip it up first! " I get home, go to do some further work on the desktop.... no, wait, zip time!

Yes, I can see how that's so much more practical than keeping the libraries in sync and working on the project from a shared location.